Apple's new MacBook Pros get 65% graphics performance boost from Intel's Iris

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 100
    tzterri wrote: »
     Battery is glued in. RAM is soldered in. Proprietor solid state drive that can only be upgraded by Apple. Only way to use ethernet is on the one and only Thunderbolt connector. Same thing with Firewire. Same thing with an external display so if you want to use more than one of things you will need to be a Thunderbolt hub plus all the adapters.


    These latest laptop from Apple are nothing but expensive throwaway toys and this is coming from someone that has used nothing but Apple computers since the eighties. 


    Pissed

    The eighties? I doubt it.

    I remember the Mac from 1984. Sealed box. Non-expandable RAM. Proprietary storage options. Proprietary everything. External expansion only. No user-serviceable parts. Incapable of external display. $2495 USD (or $5500 if you adjust for inflation).

    Good luck using that Macintosh for 7 years.

    Today's MacBook Pro Retina, with Thunderbolt 2 expansion should be good for the rest of this decade.
  • Reply 22 of 100
    winterwinter Posts: 1,238member
    While I will not be buying one, seeing this made me very happy. I am not too keen on the $1,299 model only having 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash storage but at least it's PCIe and not SATA so the speeds should be faster overall even with lower volume, no?

    I think honestly, you are best getting the $1,499 model and upgrading the RAM to 16 GB and you should be good for a minimum of 2 if not 3 years perhaps I'd dare say 4 but that could be pushing it. Call it 3.

    Sell me on the i7-4558U though... why should I pay more for it? Obviously if I can afford it I will pay for it but if that's the case I might as well go for the $1,799 model, upgrade to 16 GB of RAM, and get 1 TB of storage as well.

    Apple still has to get it with the discrete graphics but I don't think they were going to match the Razer Blade Pro by having a 765M inside. It would have been nice though.

    I think next year, the 15" will get a nice graphics boost with Maxwell or maybe even by then the next in line to Iris Pro (let's tentatively call it Iris Pro 2) will be a nice jump.
  • Reply 23 of 100
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    People need to read this!
    Two things:

    1. Mavericks dynamically allocates VRAM, which can significantly help the shared RAM situation.
    This is true but Mavericks can't help the bandwidth problem.
    2. the improved GPU performance yields across-the-board performance increases, and in some cases may yield even better performance gains *BECAUSE* of shared RAM (reduced copies to/from GPU memory in OpenCL operations)
    Starting with Intels Iris GPUs we should start to see some really impressive GPU compute numbers, for integrated GPUs. For some codes that shared RAM will speed things up dramatically. In fact shared RAM and GPU access to it will make practical OpenCL apps that just weren't worth the effort on systems with discrete GPUs.

    What all this means is developers now have compelling reasons to support OpenCL in their apps if the code base is suitable for that sort of acceleration. I would expect to see a steady growth in the adoption of GPU compute where it will work well.
  • Reply 24 of 100
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TzTerri View Post

     

     Battery is glued in. RAM is soldered in. Proprietor solid state drive that can only be upgraded by Apple. Only way to use ethernet is on the one and only Thunderbolt connector. Same thing with Firewire. Same thing with an external display so if you want to use more than one of things you will need to be a Thunderbolt hub plus all the adapters.



    These latest laptop from Apple are nothing but expensive throwaway toys and this is coming from someone that has used nothing but Apple computers since the eighties. 



    Pissed


     

    Expensive throwaways? What the **** are you talking about? Even if you buy this machine today and it can't do what you need it to do in a couple years (doubtful, since I doubt you do anything that will even come close to taxing the power) you can sell it, and get the majority of the retail value of the machine back. These things keep their value, to a degree no other notebook does. I don't remember the last time I had any inclination to upgrade a laptop. It's just not that important anymore, and times have changed. I'm a designer, work with multiple, massive files at once, and my 2012 Macbook Air which I bought at launch still flies through everything. These MBPs smoke my machine when it comes to power. Unless you render Pixar movies, I have no idea what you're complaining about. 

     

    But yeah, feel free to "throw it away", it will at least be consistent with your utterly irrational, unreasonable, and unbalanced post. Here's a hint: The next version will be no more "upgradeable" then this one. So, you might as well jump ship now than irritate people with more whining and bitching. 

  • Reply 25 of 100
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Don't tell us, tell Apple.

    tzterri wrote: »
     Battery is glued in. RAM is soldered in. Proprietor solid state drive that can only be upgraded by Apple.
    Actually I'm under the impression that the SSD is upgradable.
    Only way to use ethernet is on the one and only Thunderbolt connector.
    This really sucks hard, using a TB cabled Ethernet adapter is just bad voodoo.
    Same thing with Firewire. Same thing with an external display so if you want to use more than one of things you will need to be a Thunderbolt hub plus all the adapters.
    Aren't the MBPs now coming with two TB2 ports? I'm on a slow connection right now so I can't look it up.

    These latest laptop from Apple are nothing but expensive throwaway toys and this is coming from someone that has used nothing but Apple computers since the eighties. 


    Pissed

    Except for the Ethernet port I think your anger is highly misplaced. These are well built rugged machines that are forward looking. There is little sense in supporting legacy hardware on the machines. Note I'm specifically implying that Ethernet is not legacy hardware.
  • Reply 26 of 100
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    v5v wrote: »
    Perfectly reasonable argument, and if there was an "good enough" version for those folks and a "High Performance" version for those who need it, the world would have one less reason to point at Apple and laugh!
    I've never understood this mentality of Apples either. The 13" MBP is a perfect example of a machine that could use a good enough version and a performance model. For years Apple has positioned the machine such that the uprated models delivered little in the way of real computing advantage over the entry machine. At least the try a little harder on the 15" MBP.

    LOL! I never understood the idea of buying a $$$ computer to play games instead of a PS3 or XBox or whatever.

    I actually don't care how Apple does it, I just want to be able to scrub and play full-frame uncompressed HD video without hunting, buffering and stuttering. I don't think Intel Integrated is gonna cut it, but then the discrete systems Apple used in previous generations weren't exactly "high end" either.

    Well we will have to wait and see on this one. Intels Iris chips have plenty of performance and sometimes actually out perform the competition in certain aspects. They also have their weak spots. In the End the only way to really know how they perform is to load up your favorite software and try it out. Or wait for a blogger to do the same.
  • Reply 27 of 100
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    MacBook Pros have two thunderbolt ports. FYI.
  • Reply 28 of 100
    Originally Posted by TzTerri View Post

    Proprietor solid state drive that can only be upgraded by Apple.

     

    Wrong, but think whatever you want, I guess.

     

    Only way to use ethernet is on the one and only Thunderbolt connector. Same thing with Firewire. 


     

    Whoop de frick.

     

    Same thing with an external display so if you want to use more than one of things you will need to be a Thunderbolt hub plus all the adapters.


     

    Nah, you can use two. Or one over USB. But you don’t care about truth.

     

    These latest laptop from Apple are nothing but expensive throwaway toys and this is coming from someone that has used nothing but Apple computers since the eighties. Pissed


     

    Please just stop being an idiot. It solves most of your gripes here.

  • Reply 29 of 100
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,087member
    slurpy wrote: »
    Expensive throwaways? What the **** are you talking about? Even if you buy this machine today and it can't do what you need it to do in a couple years (doubtful, since I doubt you do anything that will even come close to taxing the power) you can sell it, and get the majority of the retail value of the machine back. These things keep their value, to a degree no other notebook does. I don't remember the last time I had any inclination to upgrade a laptop. It's just not that important anymore, and times have changed. I'm a designer, work with multiple, massive files at once, and my 2012 Macbook Air which I bought at launch still flies through everything. These MBPs smoke my machine when it comes to power. Unless you render Pixar movies, I have no idea what you're complaining about. 

    But yeah, feel free to "throw it away", it will at least be consistent with your utterly irrational, unreasonable, and unbalanced post. Here's a hint: The next version will be no more "upgradeable" then this one. So, you might as well jump ship now than irritate people with more whining and bitching. 

    Nice reply
  • Reply 30 of 100
    Because not every Pro works with graphics.
    The irony is most of the complaints from the "pros" is because they can't play games.

    Remember the "bad old days?", i.e., "it's a toy"...

    Now it's not toy enough.

    From what I am reading here, I should buy the previous 13" MBP retina 8GB/256GB on close out discount if I want the most bang for my bucks.

    2 hours battery life isn't as big a deal as $350-450 savings. . .
  • Reply 31 of 100
    Wrong, but think whatever you want, I guess.

    Whoop de frick.

    Nah, you can use two. Or one over USB. But you don’t care about truth.

    Please just stop being an idiot. It solves most of your gripes here.

    Thanks for reminding about USB GB Ethernet.
  • Reply 32 of 100
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    This talk of being underpowered is BS. Iris is certainly less powered than the dGPU options but underpowered it is not. Go into an Apple Store and play around with a display model and report back if the OS on the Retina 13" or 15" models can't function properly due to a lack of GPU power. I can guarantee you that it will not look like an Android phone UI.

    Now is Iris the right option for you? That all depends on your usage case, just as a larger display, lighter chassis, longer battery life, faster CPU, more RAM, and additional storage depend on how you use your machine.
  • Reply 33 of 100
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post





    The eighties? I doubt it.



    I remember the Mac from 1984. Sealed box. Non-expandable RAM. Proprietary storage options. Proprietary everything. External expansion only. No user-serviceable parts. Incapable of external display. $2495 USD (or $5500 if you adjust for inflation).



    Good luck using that Macintosh for 7 years.



    Today's MacBook Pro Retina, with Thunderbolt 2 expansion should be good for the rest of this decade.

    LOL, didn't say I was still using a Mac from the eighties. Actually my first Mac was a Mac II fx. Lots of expendability.

     

    I'm comparing the latest Macbooks with the 17" Macbook that I'm still using. It has two firewire ports. A DVI connector that supports my 30" Apple monitor without needing a $100 adapter. Plus an ethernet port. It also has a DVD drive that is dead so I'm actually happy that it has finally been removed. Also a PCI slot that I've never used so not sad to see that gone.



    Every laptop that I've ever owned has needed a new battery after about three years so yeah I'm not happy about Apple gluing in the battery.  Battery in all my cars also seems to last about three years and I would be not happy at all if I needed to return my car to the manufacture for a few days to have its battery replaced. I tend to change my own battery in my car so why not my laptop?

     

    According to ifixIt no one is making replacement drives for the new Macbooks. Hopefully that will change but right now it seems the only option is to pay $500 extra for a 1 gig drive which is insane. 



    Apple's laptop used to be workhorses with lots of ports and an easy to upgrade hard drive and replacing the battery took all of 1 minute. Now it seems that Apple has turned their laptops into something just for use on the go and we are getting back to having to have a desktop computer at the office which seems like a step backwards to me.

  • Reply 34 of 100

    And I do stand corrected. They do have two Thunderbolt connectors. Not sure how I missed that. 

    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

  • Reply 35 of 100
    winterwinter Posts: 1,238member
    The only thing I am against is the fact that the battery is glued in. Glue just seems cheap to me.
  • Reply 36 of 100
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    tzterri wrote: »
    And I do stand corrected. They do have two Thunderbolt connectors. Not sure how I missed that. 
    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

    More specifically they have Thunderbolt 2 ports which will allow them to drive 4K external displays. This is something no other shipping Mac has so far and, at least to me, the obvious reason why the MBPs did not ship earlier with Haswell despite some people complaining.
  • Reply 37 of 100
    akqiesakqies Posts: 768member
    winter wrote: »
    The only thing I am against is the fact that the battery is glued in. Glue just seems cheap to me.

    Seems, sure, I'll give you that, but was it a bad engineering move for that component?

    If you want to screw down the battery you can't (reasonably) place mount points within the primary component like you can with a logic board so you would need to have additional pieces for it to attach. This would appear to add size even if the weight was negligible without adding anything to the design except that rare instance that someone has used thousands of charges and wants to change out their battery in a slightly more convenient way, which I don't think Apple shouldn't care about years down the road. I want the device to be as thin, light, durable, and powerful as possible within a particular price point. For my needs they achieved that.

    PS: The last battery I recall Apple screwing down were the ones that were much thicker and a lot less spread out over the footprint of the casing. Are the first redesigned MBA batteries screwed or glued?
  • Reply 38 of 100
    tzterritzterri Posts: 110member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Winter View Post



    The only thing I am against is the fact that the battery is glued in. Glue just seems cheap to me.

    What really makes it bad is the trackpad cable is glued in under the battery. So as you are trying to unglue the battery there is a good chance of destroying the trackpad cable.

     

    If they didn't want use screws then how about Velcro?

  • Reply 39 of 100
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella View Post





    Because not every Pro works with graphics.

    The irony is most of the complaints from the "pros" is because they can't play games.

     

    While it's nice to have the ability to play games on the side, the real benefit comes from having a GPU to take on some of the burden imposed by creative apps. 

     

    Which is especially good if you're working with 100+GB videos in Final Cut, or 2+GB images in Photoshop.

     

    Integrated graphics belong on the low end, entry-level machines. 

  • Reply 40 of 100
    tzterri wrote: »
    Only way to use ethernet is on the one and only Thunderbolt connector. Same thing with Firewire. Same thing with an external display so if you want to use more than one of things you will need to be a Thunderbolt hub plus all the adapters.

    You could always just get apples Thunderbolt Display which will consume one of the 2 thunderbolt ports on the MBP and provides USB ports, another thunderbolt port , FireWire and gigabit Ethernet on the back of it.... Granted the USB ports are only USB 2 at the moment but I suspect we'll be seeing some new and updated apple display options around the Mac Pro release which should bring USB 3 and 4k options

    There are also lots of options for Ethernet via one of the USB ports for a lot less than apples thunderbolt Ethernet adapter...
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